THE WOLF'S CALL

Set sometime in the future, we open with an extraction off the coast of Syria where a team of silent commandos engage in a gun battle, take to the waters, and are picked up under the waves by a French submarine.

Inside the control room, Commander Grandchamp (Reda Kateb, 'Submergence') and his right-hand man D'Orsi (Omar Sy, 'Transformers: The Last Knight') are ready to make a stealthy getaway. However, this doesn't go exactly to plan as Chanteraide (François Civil, 'Who You Think I Am') - nicknamed "Socks", and serving as "golden ear", the officer specialised in underwater acoustics - detects a strange audio signature. "Four blades, but not a sub... and way too quiet to be a cargo ship," he ponders. At first, he classifies the contact as a sick sperm whale, but it quickly turns out that the contact is an unknown submarine transmitting their position to an Iranian frigate and a maritime helicopter operating in the area. Bombs are dropped and man-versus-helicopter rocket duel ensues.

Back on land, we learn the Russians have gone on the offensive and the United States have shrunk into isolationism, leaving the chance for a nuclear war. Chanteraide's hearing becomes crucial in detecting and identifying the enemy. He is convinced that the "wolf's call" he heard was something more - the term refers to the sonar that is dipped from the surface to detect the submarine (the device ultimately has little to do with the plot, its name seemingly being used because it sounds cool).

You see, Chanteraide is positioned as a sort of superheroic mutant when it comes to acoustics, an undersea Daredevil-type who uses his hyper sense of hearing to go on some bits of investigation. Even when he's balls deep in some gratuitous sex with a bookseller in the city (Paula Beer, 'Never Look Away', 'Transit'), the guy "hears" the ocean. It harkens back to Luc Besson's 'Big Blue' and is frequently silly - he is able to pick up the faintest sounds, knows when his girlfriend is sneaking up on him, and can identify a password by the sound of the keyboard. At one point, Chanteraide can hear the difference between an active and dummy missile launch. Fact is, the entire cast bolsters the credibility of the film with the likes of Civil, Jean-Yves Berteloot and Omar Sy building a lot personality out of their take in all this.

The movie is even goofier when you consider that it written and directed by Antonin Baudry, a former French diplomat specialising in cultural affairs, an adviser to the Prime Minister and a comic book author. 'The Wolf's Call' takes several jabs at the French administration for being slow and inefficient. For instance, an important military headquarters call to the President is put on hold for several seconds, accompanied by inappropriate music. Later, the admiral in command of the Strategic Oceanic Force (codename: ALFOST) complains about a broken computer screen that hasn't been replaced yet and demands an explanation from the crew, to which he is answered, "This is France."

There is a large section of the film set out of the water, but once back under the waves it moves more quickly, the story putting all its weight on Chanteraide's ears. If you're howling for a slice of Tom Clancy-esque military action cheese, you'll enjoy 'The Wolf's Call'.